Personality Development Most Personality Theories

¶ … Personality Development

Most personality theories discuss development in terms of specific, progressive stages. Piaget and Erikson's theories of personality development follow a similar structure. However, the fundamental difference between the two theories lies in the fact that while Piaget explained development from a motor and cognitive perspective, Erikson approached the subject from the view point of social development (AllPsych, 2004).

Piaget's "Theory of Cognitive Development" describes the specific stages that children go through, as their cognitive ability to understand relationships develops. Thus, Piaget's theory explains how personality develops as: infants learn to manipulate objects that are within their current sensory perception and then go on to understand the concept of object permanency (sensorimotor stage); children begin to interact with their environment through the use of words and images though they are able to focus only one aspect of a stimulus (preoperational stage); older children begin to develop their cognitive ability and learn the concept of grouping of concrete objects (concrete operations stage); teenagers develop a more abstract view of the world, using concepts such as conservation, reversibility and the idea of cause and effect (formal operations stage). In effect, Piaget explained the processes through which personality is formed. Piaget's work is valuable as it enables parents and teachers to facilitate and monitor a child's cognitive development, thereby laying the foundation for a healthy adult personality.

In contrast, Erikson's "Theory of Psychosocial Development" concerns itself with how children socialize and how this affects their sense of self. According to Erikson, a child's personality develops through eight distinct stages, each of which involves a different psychosocial crisis and has two possible outcomes. The successful completion of each stage results in a healthy personality whereas failure to negotiate any one particular stage leads to a reduced ability to complete other stages and, therefore, a less healthy personality and sense of self. The eight psychosocial crises or stages that Erikson defined are: trust vs. mistrust; autonomy vs. shame and doubt; initiative vs. guilt; industry vs. inferiority; identity vs. role confusion; intimacy vs. isolation; generativity vs. stagnation; and ego integrity vs. despair. Like Piaget, Erikson's theory also explains the factors that influence personality development albeit through a framework of psychosocial factors. Thus, this theory too is immensely valuable as it enables parents and teachers to help a child successfully negotiate each psychosocial crisis and thereby develop a healthy sense of self.